Listen. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m the one who has horrible tastes in things and what I don’t like most other people do. People do have unusual tastes in things, things that are unusual. For example, my friend and fellow reviewer Erratic still has a HUGE collection of something called ‘cassette tape’ full of something called ’80′s music’.
I bought this game on a whim, because I felt like playing an RPG, something new, and I’m a sucker for anything science fiction. I installed it, watched the intro – space ships whizzing around, weird alien things, lasers, the whole sci fi bit. I sipped my coffee then rubbed my hands together in anticipation – and then gameplay started.
The more I played the more disappointed I got. This game tried to marry FPS plus RPG plus some sort of strategy game, and rather poorly I might add.
First off, the controls. Your W, A, S, D keys controlled the camera. Your mouse controls … something. Firing and collecting nearby ‘parts’ to build things. Your skills tree is pretty useless, your special abilities confusing to find and administer. The story line is lackluster and the game itself is incredibly repetitive.
Bascially, if you want your games to play out like your day job get this game. I don’t mean any sort of day job, I’m talking more along the lines of some sort of officious government worker that does the same meaningless thing all day long ever day until you retire with a pension that allows you to live on cat food for the rest of your natural life. Yea, it’s that boring.
Like I said, I might just be weird and wrong. But in 2008 Space Seige cost 50 dollars to buy, and now you get get it for $7.99 – what does that tell you?
Yea, it sucks.
Sometimes the authors of this site get along. Sometimes we don’t. Often we disagree on how good a game is, (or how bad it is), what was the best game of all time, or even how to play certain games. Often we disagree on pizza toppings, choice of alcohol, or if showering once a week with a smattering of throwing water under your pits once a week really is good personal hygiene, or just a smidgen of overkill.
But sometimes, just sometimes, we both absolutely 100% agree on a game. In the positive light. Believe you me, we agree that there are way more stinky games than good ones out there.
These very special positive games we call ‘games with flavor’. In order to be a game with flavor, it has to have everything. Excellent gameplay, amazing story line, be unique, be addictive, makes you want to play through the game more than once, awesome graphics and good multi player online or lan game play.
But a game with flavor is more than just that. It’s a game so unique that is has it’s own FEEL to it. When you log onto the game, you are now in THAT world, not your own. And the world that you are in is so real, so unique, so believable, it just has that, that FLAVOR to it.
Bioshock is one of these games. It has EVERYTHING to deem it a game that we here at Puter Gamers [dot] com call a game with flavor. And that is no small feat.
I’m not going to describe the game play, or the game to you. I’ve played through the game three times. It is THAT amazing. Instead, if you’ve never played it (SHAME ON YOU!!!) then I encourage you to go get it, go get it NOW. There’s a reason why it won game of the year, and why it’s a game with flavor, and why the second edition coming out soon is so incredibly anticipated.
Oh, and for you console weenies:
With all of my various gaming past, there was one thing that was very scarce among the gaming circles I ran in – namely, females. Sure, I’ve seen significant others of friends play ‘games’ on a regular basis, if you can call them games. Stupid flash games like bedazzeled and word scrambles and the like. That is NOT gaming ok? We all know what gaming is and it involves things like well, graphics, brains, guts, gore, high end computers (or consoles to keep you console weenies happy), that kind of thing.
So, just to see if there ARE girls who play games that this site would consider games, I posed the following question to the good people at blog catalog:
Girl gamers, I need to know something. You, as females, if you enjoy gaming, what sort of games do you play? And what are your favorite games?
I immediatly got an answer. A gentleman by the moniker of lonewolfrepose said: There are girl gamers?
Yea, I know dood. I was wondering the same thing. Not to worry friends, my curiosity was satisfied by TJlubrano, who not only is a girl, but is a GOOD LOOKING girl. Yes, I’ll wait while you all go visit her blog profile to confirm. Done? Happy? Yes, she’s pretty. Moving on.
Ms. TJlubrano gave a comprehensive list of COOL games that she likes playing:
- Call of Duty
- The Sims (I’ll let that one go because she likes Call of Duty)
- Final Fantasy
- Tomb Raider
TJlubrano wasn’t the only female response I got, however. The BooReport likes Oblivion and Plants Vs. Zombies. AquilusDomini is MAD (I’ll take it she meant mad as in mad about and not mad at) Grand Theft Auto and God of War (which gets her almost as many points here as TJlubrano for liking Call of Duty).
Now, my question put out to the people of Blog Catalog got only a few responses compared to just about every other site wide broadcast there is there, which makes me think two things.
- Yes. Female gamers are a very rare comodity
- So if you find one hold on to her – she’s a rare catch and just about the coolest female friend you’re going to have!
So thank you to the few that answered my question, and basically confirmed what us nerds already know. Girly gamers are a rare and precious commodity, so let’s all do our best to keep them happy, hmmm?
Well, there Spaz went and did something stupid again. Writing a childishly sarcastic letter to Microsoft, expecting to get results that will appease his fragile ego. He doesn’t seem to grasp the realities of “Big Business” . When they are as big as Microsoft, they can do pretty much whatever they want with their products. And they really don’t need to listen to small fry, like us. How ever if you hope to get some positive results from a big corporation, it helps to provide a possible, real solution to the perceived problem. So I wrote a follow up letter to Microsoft:
Dear Microsoft.
Thank you for responding to my friend’s (Spaz) E-mail. I would like to apologize for his “half baked” complaint regarding Microsoft’s marketing of the HALO games. His remarks involving Microsoft’s business practices, not with standing, He does make one valid point. Namely, subsequent editions of HALO not available for ALL Gaming platforms.
A possible solution is now in order. Consider issuing an Ultimate Gamers Pack. All editions of HALO, available on all platforms. Reasons? Not everyone will buy an X-BOX, no matter what games are only available for this console. Also, and this is important, I believe. Many of us simply do not like any console based platforms.
We prefer PCs for gaming.
Sincerely,
Erratic
www.putergamers.com
If and when Microsoft replies, we’ll keep you all updated.
If you don’t remember the game Halo, I’m talking the original game release in 2003, then you cannot call yourself a gamer. Even if you aren’t a gamer, you probably know someone who is, or have seen Halo art or SOMETHING. When Microsoft released it in 2003, it made a HUGE splash and was quickly named game of the year, and deservedly so. Halo is one of those games with flavor (I will address games with flavor in an upcoming post).
Of course, all of the rest of the Halo’s have come out only for the Xbox, leaving those who have a PC or another console flapping in the wind. With the release of HALO OSDT, and the upcoming release of HALO Reach, I just couldn’t take it anymore and had to email Microsoft a letter. What follows is a copy of what I actually sent Microsoft.
Dear Microsoft
I know you are very busy continuing your hold on your world monopolies on PC software (and your other products) and counting the billions you make in net profit, but I do have a bone to pick with you. It concerns the game Halo.
As is common knowledge, your game Halo was a monumental success when it came out in 2003. It was even named game of the year and is so popular that people to this day still play it online. As a user of PC’s and Microsoft products, I too purchased this game and had tremendous fun with it as I continue to do so from time to time.
I highly anticipated the sequels to this game, and in due course Halo 2 came out. – for XBOX only. Oh, excuse me, it was also available on your highly successful, useful and stable PC operating system Windows Vista which had so much success in the PC market.
You continued the trend of releasing the incredible Halo series only for your console, XBOX and the various upgrades of XBOX, leaving those of us that only have a PC dangling in the wind, so to speak.
I understand your concerns for piracy, and how much easier it is to pirate games on a PC over a console like your XBOX, because console piracy NEVER happens, does it? I’m sure that you couldn’t have anticipated ANY piracy whatsoever of any of your software. That is to say, your software monopoly, your multi billion dollar profits and the fact that in order to put an operating system, word processing software and spread sheet software on a new PC, you’d have to actually spend more money on the software than on the brand new computer you just purchased. None of that actually encourages piracy at all, how could you have known?
So, I had a choice to make. In order to play the new Halo’s coming out, I could purchase an Xbox and perhaps not pay the mortgage for a month. Or maybe I could give up on food for a few weeks. Or maybe sell my PC which is used for work, homework, the internet and the like. Or perhaps just not purchase any of that at all, and not play Halo in any way, shape or form.
I’m not asking you to make your operating systems or other work based software a bit more reasonably priced, even though that would be an intelligent move. I’m not asking you to stop this console business or to give up a piece of your monopoly by making the various Halo games available to other consoles, because private labeling a product is NEVER a good way to make extra profits, isn’t that right? I’m asking you to back release all versions of Halo for PC. If you do that, I cannot guarantee I will be your very first customer, but I can guarantee that I will purchase it as soon as I can after the release.
Respectfully yours,
Spaz
www.putergamers.com
If you agree, please, add this post to a social bookmarking, talk about it on your blog, and/or email Microsoft yourself. Let’s get all the Halo’s for PC so we can ALL enjoy this game!
